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Andrew Probert
| Place of birth = Independence, Missouri | Date of death = | Place of death = | Awards for Trek = | Roles = Designer, (Senior) Illustrator, TNG performer, ''Star Trek'' author }} Andrew "Andy" G. Probert has an artistic career that spans over twenty years, ten of which were spent working on some of science-fiction fans' favorite Hollywood productions. At the age of six, Probert moved to California, and later joined the United States Navy. After his service he attended the "Art Center College of Design" in Pasadena, California. His Hollywood career began, with assistance of Ralph McQuarrie, on the small screen as a designer for Glen Larson's Battlestar: Galactica. He quickly moved to the big screen as a major contributor on Star Trek: Phase II and its successor , being employed by Robert Abel & Associates as concept designer/illustrator, moving over to Future General Corporation in the same capacity, after the former was pulled from the project. When Star Trek: Phase II (the proposed successor of the original Star Trek series) was canceled, in order to produce The Motion Picture, Joe Jennings (the Art Director) had already come up with his version of an upgraded ''Enterprise'', and a model was in the process of being constructed. Probert, amongst others, went on re-designing this version, plus he designed several of the Enterprise s interiors, as well as those for the . For the movie he further designed amongst others the orbital office complex, drydock and the Work Bee. Andrew Probert went on to work a number of television and feature-film projects, including Airwolf and Back to the Future. Probert's last project in Hollywood proved to be the one for which he is most well known. In 1987 Probert was hired as Senior Illustrator for Star Trek: The Next Generation, originally to design interiors sets, most notably the bridge. But a lucky circumstance, when a producer David Gerrold noticed a design sketch Probert made, based on a painting he did for his own amusement years earlier of a conjectural future design of the Enterprise, resulted in him also designing the . Andrew Probert was, to the first season of The Next Generation, what Walter M. "Matt" Jefferies was to the original Star Trek television series, designing most of the ships, sets, and races. Paramount obtained several design patents based on Probert's work on both Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He is listed as the "inventor" on those designs and is the sole person officially credited with the design for the . Probert was and is a staunch supporter and defender of Gene Roddenberry's creation and his vision thereof and has been on record for his less than enthusiastic view on Rick Berman and his take on the franchise: "Gene Roddenberry was initially in charge of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as he well should be, and something happened politically to change that. You know, I had no idea what caused that change. But while Gene was in charge, he and I got along very well. We understood each other. And I liked him because of his creation of Star Trek, and he fully understood exactly where he wanted his show to go. Yet he was fully open to any ideas that we threw at him, and he would talk about that, and he talked about it intelligently. When Rick Berman took over the show, half way through the first season, every time we showed him a design concept, his constant response was, "no, we can't do that, because it reminds me of something that I've seen somewhere", or "it looks like a shaver", or "it looks like something I've seen in a furniture store". The only thing of note that Rick Berman did before Star Trek was a show called "The Big Blue Marble", a kid's show. For some reason, Paramount led him into this. I don't know. I've heard conflicted stories that Gene thought he was a great producer and wanted to bring him in. Whatever it is, Rick Berman did not, in that time, and, as far as I can see from what is being produced, does not understand science fiction. I've seen a lot of great concepts, by Doug Drexler and a few of the other illustrators that they have been working on, passed over in favor of much more controlled concepts. My experience with Rick Berman is, you know, he does not understand what he's doing, he does not understand science fiction.(...)I think Star Trek died when Gene died. Well, as I said, Gene understood exactly what he wanted for his show, and his main focus was maintaining consistency in the show. And everybody who cared about Star Trek eventually left the show. Bill Theiss, the costumer, left, I left, Bob Justman left. So... I don't know what to say, it was very frustrating working on that.(...)I think he Berman cares about it for the money. I think he cares about it because he is confident that, no matter what they produce, if it has the name "Star Trek" on it, people will go watch it. They'll complain about it, but they will still make money from the viewers. But, you know, this is just my opinion." A consummate designer Probert found Hollywood a difficult place to work in, "As much as I (still) love making films, I hated the politics, ass-kissing, and back-stabbing that it took to get most jobs in that town. I never learned to "play the game". I don't lie, I don't schmooze, I just like to work."http://www.trekplace.com/ap1999int01.html, This and the artistic differences, made Probert consciously decide to leave the movie business. Probert went on to work as a Walt Disney Imagineer, a video game artist, and is now involved in producing paintings and recently joined the developers of Star Trek Online with their visual look development. In , Probert was interviewed for the special feature "Next Generation Designer Flashback: Andrew Probert" for the Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection (DVD), especially for the newly released . He talks about his memories regarding his work on the first Star Trek film and early concepts for the saucer separation on the . Probert is, besides his design work, also an accomplished painter and work by his hand has adorned the TNG settings of the Captain's ready room and sickbay as well as the covers of publications like The Making of the Trek Films and Cinefantastique, issue 51. Star Trek credits * - Production Illustrator (credited as "Andy Probert") Storyboards, revisions or new designs of all space hardware and various hand props. Interior designs and renderings of the Enterprise cargo bay and Klingon cruiser's bridge, as well as an assortment of additional production art. Art directed and supervised the detailing of various miniatures as well as providing major design contributions to the Enterprise exterior. A com-voice at Epsilon IX also makes reference to a "Commodore Probert, Starfleet." * Star Trek: The Next Generation - Consulting Senior Illustrator, Season 1, - Concept sketches and designs of all featured starships, for the show's first season, including the Type 7 shuttlecraft, Ferengi marauder, Romulan warbird and the . Also designed the Enterprise-D main bridge, battle bridge, and contributed heavily to the remaining sets. Additional responsibilities included designing various props, other-world environments, matte paintings, and the look of several alien races, notably the Ferengi. He made an uncredited cameo appearance as a post-atomic court spectator in the pilot episode . He described his hat as a large tribble in an interview. * - Production Designer/Guest Star In 2008 Probert joined James Cawley's fan film production of Star Trek: Phase II for their episode Kitumba, for which he designed a new klingon fighter craft http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/news20090121.html http://probertdesigns.com/Folder_STORE/Folder_CONCEPT-KITS/K-Fighter_KIT.html and in which he guest starred as the afore-mentioned Commodore Probert. http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/news20090723.html Bibliography * Entertainment Visual Design: A Look Back, Starlog photo guidebook Special Effects, Volume 5, 1996, pp. 88-113 – Illustrator/Author Further reading * Andy Probert Talks about the Lost Designs of Star Trek The Motion Picture, David Houston, Starlog, issue 32, March 1980, pp. 26-33, 63 * Andrew Probert: Star Trek Illustrator & Designing the Main Bridge, , June 2000, pp. 45-51 * ''Designing the Main Bridge (Part Two), , July 2000, pp. 22-26 * Designing the , , August 2000, pp. 50-56 * Designing the [7 shuttlecraft|Type-6 ''[sic. Shuttlecraft]], , January 2001, pp. 56-57 * ''Designing the interiors of the USS ''Enterprise NCC-1701-D'', , February 2001, pp. 18-22, 24-27 * Dreaming of an Ending:The Separation Sequence That Never Was, , February 2001, p. 122 * How to fly without warp nacelles: The Tarellian Plague Ship, , April 2001, p. 112 * Imagining the Future, , April 2002, pp. 42-49 *''Decorating the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D: Paintings'', , April 2002, p. 112 * The Art of Star Trek, 1995 * Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints, 1996, accompanying booklet * Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission, 1997 External links * ProbertDesigns.com - official site * * 1999 Interview with Andrew Probert at TrekPlace.com * at * 2005 Interview with Andrew Probert at TrekPlace.com * 2005 Interview with Andrew Probert at Forgotten Trek * 2009 Interview with Andrew Probert at round2models.com de:Andrew Probert es:Andrew Probert Probert, Andrew Probert, Andrew Probert, Andrew Probert, Andrew